Your relationships with other human beings will be better when you’re financially independent.

You can do the things you want with those you love. And you won’t have to do something you hate in order to make ends meat.

That can kill your relationships with other people.

The way you interact with people and your outlook on life will dramatically improve when you control your own cash.

How to achieve financial independence

There’s a few ways to obtain financial independence.

Option 1: Build your own successful business

Building your own successful business means you control your own income.

You’re the boss. Financial independence is established in your life because you pay yourself.

Building your own business is the best way to own a business. And ownership is how you get rich.

Option 2: Save up enough money to never have to work

Another option to become financially free is to save up enough money.

With enough cash saved up, you won’t need to work.

This requires an insanely high income, or a moderate income on a minimalist lifestyle with little to no responsibilities. You need to figure out how to spend less money and save the money you’re making.

Option 3: Generate Passive income that’s greater than your expenses

Generating passive income that outweighs your expenses is another option at reaching financial independence.

However, you generally need to have savings to invest in passive income options like mutual funds or real estate.

And even then, the money you’ll from this will help to get you richer. But it won’t make you rich in the first place if you have little money to invest.

That being said, a blog or youtube channel can generate passive income with little money to get started. You’ll need high quality content over a few years, a solid niche, and luck in order to make this a reality.

How to really achieve Financial Independence: Hybrid Option

If you’re able to start your own business without taking a job then do that right now.

However, most people, myself included, had to start by working for someone else.

Working a job you hate sucks ass, but you need to have enough cash for living expenses and your business.

Stacking cash at a job

Achieving financial independence for most people means stacking cash at a job.

While stacking that cash you need to start your business on the side. It’s possible to start building your business from scratch once you quit your job, but not recommended for most guys.

Building the side business

Starting a side business will give you the confidence that you can actually make it happen.

If you’re making $1000 or $2000 a month from your side business, then you’ll have more assurance knowing you can scale that up.

It’s difficult to build it on the side. I know it can be draining. But it’s the best chance you have at gaining true financial independence.

Quit the job

Once your business can cover your expenses and you have some savings (ideally 20k or more), then you can quit your job.

If you’re covering your expenses doing your business part time, then you can definitely scale your business doing it full time.

Especially if you’re selling a service like marketing, web design, programming, etc. to businesses where there’s a proven market and it’s just a matter of grinding.

Selling a service to business owners will ensure you can control your income. Aka, B2B sales.

B2C sales, which is when you sell to consumers, is more hands off. There are many benefits to selling a product that you don’t have to sell directly, like the fact that you don’t have to sell directly and cold call/email.

But… you also have less control over your income and are at the mercy of the demand.

If you’re selling a product to consumers, then there’s more risk involved. I recommend only doing this if you’re extremely passionate about what you’re selling, or if it’s your second business.

Grow the business

You’re on your own and it’s time to grow the business.

If you need work done it’s best to hire contractors at first until you can really do your homework on bringing on full time employees.

Whether you want to hire full time employees is up to you. You can still have financial independence without them, and in fact, you’ll be more independent in general this way.

Nevertheless, if your business is growing past six figures and you really want to scale, you’ll likely have to hire people at some point.

It’s up to you whether you want to keep it a 1 man show and completely own your time or hire some employees to do more of the busy work.

The catch is you’ll have to manage them, which will take a massive amount of time. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you want to be your own boss or someone else’s. No wrong answer, just preference.

Generate Passive income

Now that you’ve built your business, it will take the majority of your time.

You’ve already achieved a decent level of financial independence at this point. However, it’s all about progress.

Rich people stay rich and get richer by making their money work for them.

Which means generating passive income. Passive income is definitely possible, it just takes either a lot of money or a lot of time to invest in.

For example, starting a blog and gaining lots of traffic takes tons of time and consistent effort over years, but takes little money.

On the other hand, it takes a lot of money to buy rental properties, but little time if you can get past the paperwork with a good agent.

I usually don’t recommend real estate for most guys, but that’s because I’m usually talking about buying a mortgage. If you have money in the bank to buy some rental properties in cash, then it can be a great way to generate passive income.

Ways to generate passive income and achieve higher levels of financial independence:

Real estate / rental properties

Starting a product based business selling digital products (takes work at first to create)

Buy an existing online business

Affiliate marketing on a blog

Dropshipping (overcrowded but can be worth trying if you have play money)

Investing in mutual funds

Investing in businesses

Mutual funds are probably the safest option, as a fund following the S&P will average around 8% return each year.

Once you build your money reserves, you can set aside some to invest and test the waters.

Generating passive income in addition to the money you’ll be getting as a business owner will out you on the path to becoming wealthy.

Things not to do when you’re trying to becoming financially independent

If you want to achieve true financial independence, then you need to avoid certain things that can destroy this possibility.

Getting married, even if you’re rich, can fuck up your financial independence.

And if you’re not rich, i.e. you’re average, then it will order any chance of you obtaining financial independence once you’e divorced.

But the other things like buying a sports car or going to strip clubs will also hold you back.

You can do these things once you’ve achieved financial independence. Not when you’re still building your wealth.

Wealth and true Financial Independence

Building real wealth is how you become fully financial independent, to the point where you can live well even if you closed down your business.

And true financial independence means you’re wealthy.

It doesn’t mean just taking care of yourself. Independence means you aren’t dependent on anyone, but there might be those who are dependent on you.

Your parents, your kids or future kids, those who you care about.

Being able to take care of yourself is one thing, but real financial indolence means you can take care of those who need you when they need it.

Some of us have no responsibility now, but that won’t always be the case. Unless you live under a rock, you want to have the ability to provide a great life for yourself and your people, whoever that may be.

Attaining financial independence means you’re free from the bullshit.

It means you can use your wealth to create a better life for yourself and those around you, and never have to be a slave to some else’s dream.

Become a Rebel!

Subscribe to the news letter and stay up to date with all of the latest articles. I only send 1 email a week, recapping the new content and sharing my thoughts. No spam or endless bullshit.